When the first time mum, from Brisbane, has her 12-week scan when she was pregnant with Teddy it was discovered he had gastroschisis – where the baby’s intestines, and other organs, protrude outside of the body through a hole beside the belly button.
“The radiologist said it would be fine but then when I went to see my doctor he told me that I should terminate because he had only seen three other cases who all terminated,” Holly tells Kidspot.
This advice is quite alarming considering that 90-95 per cent of babies identified with gastroschisis survive the pregnancy
Fortunately, in this case, Holly had done in her homework about the condition, which affects one in every 5,000 babies.
“Luckily, I did a lot of research over the weekend and said that I wanted a second opinion.”
As a result she now has a gorgeous and very happy seven month old little man.
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Teddy was born on December 14 with his large and small intestine outside of his stomach. Picture: Supplied
‘It was a silly thing to have said’
“It makes me sick and angry when I look back on what he said.”
Holly has decided to tell her story in case other parents find themselves in the same situation and don’t realise that many little ones can go onto live normal lives after they are born with gastroschisis.
“I was still upset with that he said even though I wasn’t prepared to terminate because I hadn’t read anything about babies being terminated so I didn’t think it was possible. It was a silly thing to have said.”
When Holly got a second opinion it was confirmed that she had made the right decision in keeping her child – there was no mention of terminating, just very close monitoring.
‘Not being able to hold him was pretty awful’
Teddy was born prematurely at just 1.9kg on December 14 last year with his large and small intestines outside of his tiny torso.
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